In this episode of the Day Two Cloud podcast, Ethan Banks and Ned Bellavance discuss some of the presentations from Cloud Field Day. They looked at the big presentations from VMware, SolarWinds, and startup Pensando in the episode, specifically focusing on VMware Cloud on AWS, monitoring cloud performance with SolarWinds, and Pensando’s SmartNIC to offload a server’s network processing. Having two great hosts discussing the latest cloud goodness makes for a good podcast.
VMware Makes Kubernetes Even More So With Tanzu
In this post, Justin Warren considers how VMware has gone about integrating Kubernetes into its establishing management platforms, something he heard all about at Cloud Field Day. This is an inherently complex task, if for no other reason than the Kubernetes landscape is still changing and updating rapidly. Any kind of integration would seemingly have to take that on as well. For Justin, a lot of the strength of VMware’s position with virtualization is that it is a known quantity that organizations have a continuing investment with over time. Adding in Kubernetes with Tanzu Kubernetes Grid doesn’t strictly play to that strength. For Justin, the key will be for VMware to simplify the solution over time as it learns how customers actually use Kubernetes.
VMware Embracing Terraform: Infrastructure as Code
Chris Grundemann was a little surprised when he heard VMware’s Narayan Bharadwaj mention Terraform during the opening presentation of Cloud Field Day. In fact, what he said is that VMware is “embracing Terraform in a pretty big way” as part of their focus on Infrastructure as Code. This struck Chris for two reasons. One, you wouldn’t be off-base to think of Terraform as a competitor to several VMware products. And two, because of the things that it makes possible. He digs into more of the specifics in this post.
Automating Disaster Recovery Is Risky Business – Day Two Cloud Podcast Video
Ned Bellavance and Ethan Banks think through VMware’s DRaaS offering, pondering the pros and cons of automation disaster recovery & business continuity. Sounds great, but are users testing regularly? What’s the failback process after the disaster is over? VMware went into detail during their Cloud Field Day presentation, and Ethan and Ned break it down in this episode of Day Two Cloud.
VMC on AWS Is More Cloud Like All the Time – Day Two Cloud Podcast Video
After hearing from VMware at Cloud Field Day, Ethan Banks and Ned Bellavance consider VMware Cloud on AWS now that a couple of years have gone by since the service launched. Is it really cloud yet, or just VMware in a colo alongside AWS? It’s really both. They dig into it on a recent episode of the Day Two Cloud Podcast. Be sure to check it out, watch VMware’s presentation from the event, and let us know what you thing!
Cloud Field Day 7 – VMware Cloud on AWS
VMware is not an unfamiliar site at Field Day events, and most recently, they graced us with a presentation at Cloud Field Day. Ed Horley was a delegate for the event and got to hear a lot about VMware Cloud on AWS. For Ed, it seems like VMware has deftly navigated the often daunting challenges of adopting their established enterprise business model into the public cloud. The solution extends the ability to run cloud workloads to the scale and flexibility that AWS provides while also providing native hooks and features from AWS that extend what an enterprise can leverage from both VMware and AWS. It’s an impressive achievement that has a lot of value for organizations with deep VMware investments.
VDI as a Service Is Better Than VDI
One of the most familiar in-jokes among IT folks is declaring a new year to be “the year of VDI.” This joke usually elicits a droll smile or perhaps a barely noticeable wince. The reason it persists year after year is that it speaks to a larger truth, while VDI always seems like it’s about to go from a niche solution to mass market, it always somehow stays in its place. Enrico Signoretti heard from VMware at Cloud Field Day recently, and while he doesn’t think it will ever be the year of VDI, he does think that the time for VDI as a service might be here. While expense will always be an issue with the technology, VMware showed that the security benefits and ease of deployment can more than prove its worth.
Marketplaces Are Changing the Way We Do Enterprise IT
Enrico Signoretti has been looking into the increasing importance of marketplaces for unstructured data management solutions. These allow IT to add functionalities to your infrastructure quickly, without having to go through a complex purchase, installation, and configuration process. Enrico got to see two examples of these at recent Field Day events. At Cloud Field Day, VMware showed off their marketplace for VMware Cloud on AWS, with another marketplace on display at Tech Field Day Virtual with Red Hat. With more mature technology, Enrico see marketplaces not just as the purview of cloud providers, but rather being extended to hybrid cloud platforms and eventually the private enterprise marketplace.
Cloud Field Day 7 (#CFD7): A Heads-Up
We were lucky to have Ather Beg joins us as a delegate for Cloud Field Day. He always brings keen insight and extensive industry experience to offer a truly unique voice around the delegate table, virtual or otherwise. In this post, he gives a look at each of the presenters and why their session may be of interest to a wider audience. There was VMware, no stranger to Field Day, doing two sessions on their VMware Cloud on AWS solution. He was also interested in Stellus’ key-value store approach to storage to provide exceptional performance using protocols like NFS. There was also a presentation from SolarWinds, as well as a look into the Pensando Distributed Services Platform. Be sure to check out all the presentation videos to get to speed with the latest from the event.
Exorcising Network Ghosts With VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer
Is your networking haunted? Or do you feel like problems are happening and you can’t find them? Who you gonna call? Tom Hollingsworth looks at how VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer can help you bust the ghosts that haunt your network and prove that the problems are floating around somewhere else. While definitely a spooky topic, luckily Tom found VMware’s presentation from Networking Field Day to be anything but.
vSphere 7 and Kubernetes – Should Customers Wait?
On this video from Keith Townsend, he talks with CTO Dose co-host Joep Piscaer about vSphere 7 and his impressions of the Kubernetes integration. Project Tanzu Grid is the updated branding for Project Pacific. They break down if VMware’s initial release lived up to the not inconsiderable hype. They also discuss if customers should be quick to latch onto Tanzu, or wait for further development. Watch as Keith and Joep recap their impressions from VMware’s Tech Field Day presentation.
vSphere 7 and Kubernetes – CTO Advisor Episode 118
In this CTO Dose Keith Townsend is joined by co-host Joep Piscaer to discuss vSphere 7 and his impressions of the Kubernetes integration, something Keith got to hear about in depth at Tech Field day . They discussed Project Tanzu Grid as the updated branding for Project Pacific, VMware’s effort to integrate Kubernetes into vSphere. They look at if VMware’s initial release lived up to the hype, and whether customers should adopt it right away, or wait for further development.
Cloud Field Day 7 – Who Will Be Presenting?
Alastair Cooke will be joining us virtually for Cloud Field Day later in April. Instead of the jetlag that comes from crossing an ocean to usually be at an event, he’ll instead be up early to join the other delegates for the presentations. Though a virtual event, he’s looking forward to the same in-depth technical presentations, the opportunity to ask direct questions to the presenters, and the great conversations with the other delegates. In this post, he runs down what he’s looking forward to from each of the presenters. This includes a mix of Field Day stalwarts like Aruba, VMware, and Solarwinds, with newer companies to the event series, like Stellus and Pensando. Be sure to mark your calendar to join the live stream to watch the event along with Alastair.
Google Cloud VMware Engine – Hot Take
The former CloudSimple team presented at Tech Field Day 21 on the recently rebranded Google Cloud VMware Engine (GVE). What is it? How is it different than VMware Cloud on AWS? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Keith Townsend got to learn all about it during our recent virtual Tech Field Day event. While not going into competitive solutions specifically, they did outline how GVE differentiates in the landscape. This takes the VMware Cloud Foundation based, which allows any cloud provider to take any VMware components to offer a managed VCS service. Google of course offers their considerable scale on top of this. Keith breaks down how this compares to the other major public clouds.
Tech Field Day
It’s always great to have an iconic company like VMware present at Tech Field Day. With a diverse array of solutions that have important places throughout the data center, it’s important for the Field Day community to keep up to date on the latest, and communicate directly with their team. At their recent Tech Field Day presentation, VMware did deep dives on VMware Cloud Foundation 4, vRealize Network Insight, Kubernetes integration of VMware NSX, and more. Be sure to check out their full presentation video for all the latest.
vSphere Kubernetes Hot Take
Keith Townsend got to hear from VMware at Tech Field Day, where they packed a lot of information into a four hour session. Part of the presentation that surprised him was the Kubernetes integration into vSphere. This didn’t take the approach that Keith had thought when it was originally announced. Instead it comes as an extension of VMware Cloud Foundation, providing the ability to run a SDDC reference design across any environment. His biggest question with this is using VSAN as the management platform for Kubernetes. It’s an intriguing breakdown of the presentation, and Keith can’t wait to get some more focused deep dive sessions from VMware soon.
Paradigm Shift of Dev to Storage Ops
Chin-Fah Heoh considers how the advent of containers and Kubernetes have moved storage and DevOps closer than ever. In his mind, the Container Storage Interface commonly used in the industry cannot scale nearly as well in the cloud like object storage, which is clearly where container storage needs to go in the future. At Storage Field Day, he heard how MinIO is looking to bridge the divide between Dev and Ops with their Kubernetes friendly high performance object storage platform. He then looks at how VMware is adapting to the times with Project Pacific, which includes Cloud Native Storage and has chosen MinIO as the resident object storage provider. It’s a key integration for a high performance scalable storage solution.
Networking Field Day
It was great to have VMware present at our most recent Networking Field Day. At the event, they provided updates on a number of vital networking solutions within their portfolio. This included updates to NSX to provide improved networking and security for containers, which at scale can be challenging to manage otherwise. Check out their video demo of NSX container networking for Red Hat OpenShift 4.3 for more specifics. They also dived into NSX Advanced Load Balancer which is based on tech acquired with Avi Networks, and did several sessions on NSX analytical and intelligence capabilities. Much like NSX itself, their presentation covered a lot of ground, so be sure to watch the videos to get caught up on their latest.
VMware to Acquire Nyansa for WAN Network Analytics
VMware recently announced it intends to buy Nyansa for an undisclosed sum. We’ve had both companies present at Field Day events, and we can’t wait to see what they can create together post-acquisition. In this post, Seeking Alpha’s Donovan Jones looks at the financial impact of the deal, and how the move is part of VMware’s strategy to provide enterprises with an end-to-end solution as they demand integrated and simplified capabilities in an increasingly complex environment. Be sure to check out our video coverage of both companies to get up to speed on the tech so you can judge for yourself.
Really Late Company Christmas Shopping
As he packed for Cisco Live Barcelona, our own Tom Hollingsworth noticed something of a post-Christmas shopping spree among tech companies this year. VMware VeloCloud bought Nyansa, Arista is buying Big Switch Networks, and Tom thinks more is on the way. What’s behind this Q1 shopping spree? Tom isn’t sure!
